Back to back 5K race report.

I was very excited to challenge myself for TWO races in a row. The weekend proved to be balmy warm (in the upper 50's!) which of course translates to running skirt weather. The New Year's Eve race was at an odd time, 3:30 in the afternoon. Which means husband and I sort of floated around the first half of the day, watching what we ate and waiting to leave. We got to Race #1 with about a half hour to spare. I love watching the young kids run the mile race that usually precedes 5Ks. It brings tears to my eyes, and I can hardly wait until my youngest is old enough to participate. When we were told to line up, there was some confusion as to which direction we were taking off, and instead of being in my favorite place at the back of the pack, I actually ended up at the very FRONT! Ack! This meant that I took off MUCH faster than my usual pace and ran the first mile in about 9 minutes. Oops. I knew that if I could relax and keep up a nice, reasonable pace for the next two miles, I'd get a PR. This was relatively easy until the bottle-neck at the Confederate Cemetery. Yes, I said cemetery. Don't ask. I peeked at my Garmin at that point and say I'd slowed to an 11 minute mile. *sigh* I picked it up at the end and finished with an official time of 30:46.





Day 2 was bound to be tougher. Hubs injured himself at the first race, so I was on my own. Plus, my legs were tired and sore. I showed up, picked up my timing chip, and wandered aimlessly until I ran into someone I knew to talk to. We lined up and were off. Immediately I felt fatigued. The course was a flat out-and-back. Through a parking lot, through a quick (but fun!) trail in the woods and around a big track. I was struggling to keep my pace, and sort of attached myself to the couple running in front of me, promising myself to not let them out of my sight. Before arriving at the turn around point I saw the old-grinning-running dude from my neighborhood. He's got to be in his 70's and he was completely Kicking. My. Ass. I made it back through the woods and when I hit the parking lot I saw my husband at the corner. He's driven all the way over there to clap for me at the finish. I felt a rush of energy, and finished at a sprint... passing the man in front of me and the couple in front of him. That man found me after the race and said "Nice kick! I heard you coming behind me, but couldn't do anything about it." Sha-weet! Official chip time: 30:45. A new PR, exactly ONE second faster than my PR the day before, thanks to that kick at the end. Yay!

I don't have another 5K until August. Wonder what my time will be by then?